You don’t look happy. Have I ever? – We Need to Talk About Kevin

Today I would like to write to you about my other favourite film. After reading this and my previous post you might think that I am depress fro like such a dark film, but I am not. I just feel that those type of film are more relatable and real. Although it is only a film and can’t be 100% reality, somehow I feel that I can understand their pain. Maybe it’s just because the writers are really good. Enough about this, let me just dive in immediately about today’s film.

We Need to Talk About Kevin was adapted from a book with the same title written by Lionel Shriver. This story talks about a boy named Kevin who has a rocky relationship with his mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton). Ezra Miller portrayed this young, attractive, dual personality, detached, and difficult guy. Even when he was still a baby, I feel that he knew that his mother was not fond of him. If you watched this I think you will have the same opinion about this because of:

1. There was a scene was in order to make Kevin’s crying sound went away, Eva stand among a construction side and take peace from the noise of the construction, ignoring the loud crying voice.

2. She accidentally out of anger through Kevin from his bed while changing his diaper. Note that this even occurs when he was 5 or 6 years old, age were kids don’t actually need to wear diapers. But I think Kevin just wear it to annoyed his mother.

3. When his dad steps into the room, Kevin’s emotion will suddenly change. He started to become more bubbly, cheerful, and act just like any other kids.

This list could continues on but I would rather move on to my next point.

The genre psychological thriller plays a big role in this film as it revolves around the story of how and why Kevin could commit a school massacre. He used the bow and arrow that his dad gave him and shot his dad, younger sister, and few school mates. What I like about this film was that, the writer makes us thought that Kevin actually likes his dad. In the end, we are being daunted by the thoughts whether or not he likes or hates his dad. He might actually despise his dad after all this time.

As for his sister, from the moment she was born, I knew that he was not fond of him. There was this line that was said by Kevin to his mom:

Just because you’re used to something doesn’t mean you like it. You’re used to me.

That was the line that he said when his mom told him that he was going to have a brand new baby sister. Through out the film, I noticed that he tried his best to bug his sister, or even make her do stuff for him like for example getting him drinks.

What is also interesting about this film is that, we experience this story line through Eva’s point of view. We are being more exposed to what Eva’s real feeling. That is what I think is the biggest similarities between the book and the film. The book was actually written like a letter from Eva to his husband. In my opinion the reason why Eva did not really like Kevin was because she wasn’t ready to settled down during her pregnancy. From what I understood from the film was, Eva and his husband met during the Colour Festival, the felt the connection and started dating. Until one day she got pregnant. Cause the film did not really explained whether or not she got married before the pregnancy or the other way around. I also think that maybe it was because her passion for travelling. Having kids and family, prevented her from travel. And that, indirectly made her depressed. Kevin was not helping with her depression cause he was detached to her.

From the beginning of the film until the end viewers will knew that Kevin was actually sent to prison for his crime. During his early days, he might know the reason of his crime but when he was transferred to a real jail, he was lost. He no longer knew the reason why he did what he did.

One theory that I can think of was because towards the end, his mother has released her anger and actually accepted him. We can see that there were differences towards her emotion during her first trip to the cell versus during the ending scene. I also believe that what Kevin did, killing his dad and sister, was actually to receive attention from his mother. He actually loved her. But he was showing it in ways that people could not understand. He felt rejected by his own mother and so he did the most gruesome things any school student could have ever done.

The film has clearly show inside a mind of a person who suffers from depression and vulnerability. This is what I like about BBC film because it was not too commercial and they can produced what I feel as a high quality script film. This film does not have like the greatest big office movie green screen edit. Or even a creative set ( what they have was only a neighbourhood, their house, school, and jail). But this film has some really good storyline. It can really show you inside the mind of a psychopath. Although I don’t categorise Kevin as a psychopath, I just feel that he was misunderstood. At the moment he fired his arrow and bow down during his last act, Ezra’s performance was very gracefully. With his skinny body posture, he bowed down as if it was a theatre. Some might says it is the glorification of crime, I said that the movie as a whole is an art, cause I am pretty sure it ain’t easy to perform as psychotic yet so beautiful.

For you who haven’t watched this film, I would highly recommend it for you. But if you have watched the film, share your thoughts on the comment section below.